NOTES OF A CONTRACT KILLER by James Lincoln Warren On Saturday I got a check and a contract in the mail from Penny Publications LLC, d/b/a Dell Magazines, for a short story I submitted to Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine. The check wasn’t huge, but it was certainly welcome: $720.00. Considering that the story it was […]

Picasso Braque Matisse Manet Vermeer Rembrandt ARS GRATIA ARTIS by Leigh Lundin The Pompidou Three days ago, thieves stole €100 million (approximately $125 million) in art from the world’s second largest modern art collection. Missing from the Paris Museum of Modern Art are paintings by Picasso, Matisse, and Modigliani. I didn’t immediately connect the robbery […]

A SERIES SITUATION by John M. Floyd Over the past couple weeks I’ve had something take place, writingwise, that hasn’t happened often. In fact it hasn’t happened to me since maybe 2002. No, I didn’t write a story without committing a comma error, and no, I didn’t come down with an attack of writer’s block. […]

TEMPUS FUGIT by Steven Steinbock Your mirthful missivist is feeling languid after a long, busy week. Tempus tends to fugare, as the face of my clock reminds me. And it’s already time for further adventures in word play. Are there any words that you never seem to remember? The kinds of words that you feel […]

ALOHA SUMMER by Deborah Elliott-Upton It’s been nine months, but feels like only weeks since my intern and I got together to discuss writing, writers in general, and how to make the obsession we shared into a career. Summer is graduating high school and will be on her way to college this fall. She’ll be […]

THE PAYOFF by Rob Lopresti I don’t know if you have been watching the TV series Lost, which is sailing to a conclusion this spring. It ain’t a mystery (although in one sense it is nothing but mysteries). But if you have been following it you might appreciate this recent comic: Made me laugh, anyway. […]

William Minter is a writer and analyst on African and other international issues based in Washington, D.C. He edits the on-line AfricaFocus Bulletin, as well as the websites No Easy Victories and Mystery Places, and has kindly agreed to share his expertise on the international mystery scene. We’re running his essay in two parts. IS […]